The 2014 Winter Olympic Games will open in Sochi, Russia, on Feb. 7 with 15 athletes that have lived and trained in the Tahoe-Truckee area competing in five Olympic events in skiing and snowboarding, including in the debut of ski halfpipe and snowboard slopestyle. Follow the Olympics at olympic.org and be sure to check Facebook.com/TheTahoeWeekly for the latest results in the competitions.
Maddie Bowman
Sierra-at-Tahoe
By Jenn Sheridan
Olympic Sport: Skiing Halfpipe
Hometown: South Lake Tahoe
Resort team: Sierra-at-Tahoe
After landing on top of the podium at the U.S. Grand Prix at Breckenridge, Colo., on Jan. 12, Maddie Bowman became the first woman to qualify for the U.S. Freeskiing Olympic Halfpipe Team. Despite adverse conditions that prompted the finals to be rescheduled twice before running in a near blizzard, Bowman was able to ski a clean run and finish on top.
“I’ve never been in this position, it’s our first Olympics, but it’s pretty exciting. I’ve just been trying to take each competition day by day, not looking at the big O, but now that I know I get to compete I’m pretty excited,” said Bowman to the USSA News Bureau.
Bowman took her first turns at Sierra-at-Tahoe on her second birthday. It wasn’t long before she was ripping around the mountain with local alpine racing programs, and following the tracks of her parents who both have a strong background in competitive skiing.
With a strong foundation built from her racing background Bowman began to gravitate toward freeskiing and soon found her place with the Sierra-at-Tahoe Education Foundation Freeride Team. At the age of 17, while balancing skiing with a high school workload, Bowman made an explosive entrance into the professional halfpipe freeskiing scene. During the 2012 season, Bowman stood on the podium at nearly every major event she entered and by the time she graduated high school, she had snagged the silver medal at the X Games in Aspen, Colo.
In 2013, Bowman continued to land on the podium in every event she entered, including winning two U.S. Grand Prix events and claiming the gold medal at the 2013 X Games in Aspen.
“I’m happy to keep the ball rolling. I’m happy to be here and just ski. I think my biggest focus was to try more stuff, push it a little bit harder and risk a little more,” Bowman told the USSA News Bureau.
During the summer, Bowman continues to stay active hiking and backpacking in the Lake Tahoe area with her dog, Charlie. Mountain biking, wakeboarding and soccer also keep her busy. She is currently enrolled in school at Westminister College in Utah and continues to balance her skiing career with academic life.
Feeling confident heading into the final Grand Prix event at Park City, Utah, on Jan. 17. Bowman was able clinch another first place finish before heading to Sochi, yet she remains focused on strong skiing over results.
“I just think that if I do everything right I’ll be fine. I want to keep the momentum going into the X games and the Olympics,” she said.
Danny Davis
retroproxy
From Staff Reports
Olympic sport: Snowboarding halfpipe
Hometown: Truckee
Veteran rider Danny Davis of Truckee cinched a spot on the U.S. Olympic Snowboard Halfpipe team on Jan. 17 after a clutch victory in the third halfpipe snowboarding Olympic qualifier at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain. His victory in the progressive, high-scoring qualifier resurrected his Olympic chances.
“I’m snowboarding to get better at snowboarding. I’m not snowboarding to go to the Olympics this year. I’ve had a rough four years of getting hurt and this year was just about being good at snowboarding again,” Davis told the USSA News Bureau after his win referring to a 2010 ATV accident that severely injured his back and knocked him out of contention for the 2010 Olympics.
Davis continued his winning streak, taking gold at the first halfpipe snowboarding final at X Games Aspen on Jan. 26.
“I can’t believe it really. I’m going to ride this switch method train as long as it will last,” Davis said after his X Games Gold. Davis employed the same method in his Grand Pix win, saying after the win: “Switch riding has been something that for some reason doesn’t get explored in halfpipe that much. It’s just more flips and more spins with 12s and 14s. But there’s a whole other way to ride and that’s in your irregular stance.”
Chas Guldemond
Northstar California
by Jessie Marchesseau
Olympic sport: Snowboarding slopestyle
Hometown: Laconia, N.H., & Reno
Resort team: Northstar California
Pro snowboarder Chas Guldemond will be part of the first U.S. Olympic snowboard slopestyle team.
He already has a European X Games gold for slopestyle in his trophy case alongside a couple X Games bronzes, a few first place awards for the U.S Grand Prix, a couple more from U.S. Opens. The list goes on and on. Guldemond has stood on podiums from Boreal to Australia. But, thus far, no Olympic medals are in that trophy case, not because he doesn’t possess the skills to get one, but because up until now, snowboard slopestyle was not an Olympic event.
The Olympic Games in Sochi will be the first opportunity for slopestyle athletes to compete for Olympic gold, and Guldemond will be there at the starting line. But even though the venue may be a first, competitions in general are nothing new for Guldemond. He has been competing in snowboard events since he was 10-years-old.
Growing up snowboarding in New Hampshire, Guldemond used to take on odd jobs just to support his snowboarding habit. Then in 2005, he packed up his board and moved to Tahoe to focus more seriously on his riding. It wasn’t long before he earned a second place finish in the U.S. Open, and people started to pay attention.
Since then, not only has he stood on the podium at dozens of competitions, he has appeared in numerous snowboard films and graced the cover of more than one national snowboarding magazine. In 2008, Guldemond landed the first ever 1440 in competition, and in 2010 he was named one of Snowboarder Magazine’s TOP 10 Riders of the Year.
Along the way, Guldemond picked up sponsors such as Rockstar Energy Drink, Under Armour Mtn, Electric Visual, NEFF, Texas Pete, Eternal Snow and Kicker Audio. At the same time, magazines were nominating him for Standout this of the year and Standout that.
Amid all of this winning and recognition, there is one event that stands out in Guldemond’s memory: Stratton, Vt., 2009, when he won the U.S. Open, the Global Open Tour and finished second in the TTR World Tour … all in one day.
Over the last few years, Guldemond has been consistently placing well in competitions. He even led the points race for a spot on the Olympic slopestyle team right out of the gate this season, clinching his spot after the final qualifier in Mammoth earlier this month.
If he can maintain that consistency for a few more weeks and perhaps land a couple more perfect 1440s, Guldemond just might be the first person in history to take home the gold in men’s Olympic snowboard slopestyle.
Tim Jitloff
Mitchell Gunn | ESPA
By Ann Lindemann
Olympic Sport: Alpine Ski Racing
Hometown: Truckee, Reno & Bergen, Germany
Resort Team: Park City Ski Team
Tim Jitloff is a textbook Tahoe kid. By the tender age of 2 he was on skis, capably chasing his two older brothers around Alpine Meadows, embracing the active mountain lifestyle like nobody’s business.
“It was a very nice place for a young athletic kid to grow up and do sport,” explains the 2003 Truckee High School graduate. “I have two brothers so whatever they were doing I wanted to do. I always tried to hang with them no matter what they were doing and that’s how I got into ski racing.”
At age 19, just two years after he graduated from high school, “Jit” joined the U.S. Development Team. He earned a Junior World Championship tile and went on to compete in four World Championships and four U.S. National Championships. Additionally, he ranked more than 20 times in the top 30 World Cup competitions.
“I have a lot of competition wins over the years, but I think I can’t truly be proud of anything until I win my first World Cup Race, “ Jitloff admits. “I am proud of my national titles, Europa Cup wins … but until I reach that (World Cup) milestone I will feel incomplete.”
A nine-year veteran of the U.S. Ski Team and an Olympic (Vancouver, Canada) veteran competitor, Jitloff says the prospect of going to Sochi is a bit hard for him to wrap is brain around.
“The Olympics is really something strange to me,” he says. “I am happy at the idea of going, but I don’t think it will be real until I am there. Then it will really hit me that it is happening.”
Perhaps not wanting to jinx his odds, Jitloff says the season has been “something in the middle” for him.
“I feel that I am just a small step from really making big waves,” he says.
Jitloff’s go-big or go-home mentality flows into his personal life, as well. His mother is a breast cancer survivor and, in 2009, Jitloff enthusiastically donned his volunteer cap for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. He was the leading fundraiser in the Reno Race for the Cure for three years
“My mom having dealt with it made me want to get involved with helping in any way I could,” he explains. “It is something I am still very proud of. Due to living in Europe currently, I don’t feel I have the ability to properly continue with that level of involvement. If I involve myself with something, I want to make sure I am able to give 100 percent.”
Jitloff lives in Germany with his girlfriend, whom he says keeps him grounded.
To keep sane in an often-insane competition schedule, Jitloff also reaches for his electric guitar and messes around with some classic rock and roll riffs.
“It soothes the soul.”
In the off-season, Jitloff can be found on his mountain or road bike, swinging a tennis racket or golf club, and basically training “like crazy to be ready for the next season.”
Karly Shorr
From Staff Reports
Olympic Sport: Snowboard slopestyle
Hometown: Truckee & Milford, Mich.
Karly Shorr of Truckee put down a progressive run to land second in the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix in Mammoth on Jan. 18, cinching a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.
A Zoology student at Sierra College in Truckee, Shorr is a four-time U.S. Revolution Tour champion, has podiumed twice in the in the U.S. Grand Prix, and has two top 10 World Cup finishes.
Raised in Milford, Mich., Shorr grew up riding Boyne Mountain. Originally a competitive gymnast, she put that aside and followed her two older brothers into snowboarding. A move that will now take her to the Olympics.
David Wise
Northstar California
By Nicole Cheslock
Olympic sport: Skiing Halfpipe
Hometown: Reno
Resort team: Northstar California
“Now the pressure is off. I can work on my runs a little more and maybe work on some things I still need to hone in for Sochi,” shares David Wise, who earned a spot on the first-ever U.S. Freeskiing Olympic team based on his first place win in the halfpipe finals at the Visa U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix in Breckenridge on Jan. 12.
Wise’s winning run included a double cork 1260, rightside 900, leftside 900, rightside 720, switch 720 and alley-oop flatspin 540.
Fortunately for the recreational skier, but less so for the competitors, the snow gods blessed Breckenridge during the U.S. Freeskiing Grand Prix. The finals were postponed two times due to the challenging weather (overall standings are based on cumulative points earned throughout the tour and qualifier runs counted). The halfpipe finals took place on Jan. 12.
“I’m so happy we got the event off. It’s never a good thing to take a qualifier and turn it into a final, so I think all the riders had that mentality. I’m just excited that everyone was able to get out and that a lot of good runs were landed despite the conditions,” said Wise.
Northstar’s Wise had his sights set on the 2014 Winter Games when Skiing Halfpipe was added to the roster. A tough qualifier at U.S. Grand Prix Copper on Dec. 19 was a setback: He got a fall score on his first run and was “hit by a hurricane blast of wind second run. No finals for me,” according to his Twitter feed. The 10th place result, a letdown after such an incredible previous season, did not mean there wouldn’t be an opportunity to clinch a spot on the U.S. team, as Wise showed in January.
Wise, born in 1990, learned to ski at Sky Tavern when he was 3-years-old. He raced at Mt. Rose, and often chose runs through the terrain park during race practice before convincing his parents that freestyle was for him.
“I skied some moguls and aerials early on, but for me, nothing compared to the freedom and expression of park skiing,” shares Wise.
After his first Halfpipe and Big Air competitions at age 12, there was no turning back. Wise won his first Junior Olympic title in both Big Air and Halfpipe at age 13 and has been turning heads ever since. He’s earned four X Games medals, maintaining his title with the X Games superpipe gold in Aspen last year. Wise’s winning run included a rightside seven reverse mute to switch double cork ten into back-to-back double cork 1260s and a massive alley-oop flat five tail to close.
“I feel honored to be a part of the Northstar Pro Team,” Wise said. “My own family loves skiing here, it’s close to home, and I can rely on some of the best and most reliable ski conditions in the West.”
On his blog, Wise shares reflections on the 2013 season: “My goals this year were simple: do runs through the halfpipe that have never been done before, and enjoy the opportunity to be a part of such a cool sport. I am proud of all the medals that I’ve earned, but I am most proud of what my sport is becoming.”
Wise says that he loves to spend time with his wife and daughter and read. He’s also an avid mountain biker, softball and volleyball player.
Keep up to date with his progress on Facebook, Twitter and by visiting his site, david-wise.com.
